"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

Two days after Fidel Castro’s death, a family of four human rights defenders were arrested in Holguín, south-east Cuba. They received a one-year sentence, and the three siblings are currently on hunger strike. They are prisoners of conscience and must be released immediately and unconditionally.

Twin sisters Anairis and Adairis Miranda Leyva, their brother, Fidel Manuel Batista Leyva, and their mother, Maydolis Leyva Portelles, all human rights defenders, were arrested on 27 November 2016, two days after the death of Fidel Castro for allegedly leaving their house during the period of state mourning. The initial arrests took place in Holguín and coincided with an “act of repudiation” (acto de repudio), a government-led demonstration that is common in Cuba, carried out at the family’s home. The family are government critics, known for their activism and associated with a number of political and human rights movements including Movimiento Cubano de Reflexión (Cuban Reflection Movement). According to Maydolis Leyva Portelles, currently under house arrest, there were many non-uniformed state security officials, including political police and military officials, present during the arrest.

Maydolis Leyva Portelles and her children were charged under Article 204 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes defamation of institutions, organizations and heroes and martyrs of the Republic of Cuba, and with public disorder. On 13 January, a court of second instance upheld a one-year prison sentence for all three siblings, but allowed their mother to carry out her sentence under house arrest in order to care for her grandchildren, Adairis’ children.

According to their mother, the three siblings began a hunger strike on 7 March, the day they began serving their sentences and were imprisoned. The siblings are currently being held in three separate hospitals in critical condition. Doctors informed their mother that Adairis is at risk of a heart attack and that Fidel is urinating blood; and that all have lost significant weight. On her last hospital visit, Maydolis Leyva Portelles says that she was asked to sign a document which would authorize doctors to force feed her three children, which she refused to do. She told Amnesty International, “I don’t want any of my children to die, but I want to respect their wishes.” All three siblings and their mother are prisoners of conscience and must be released immediately and unconditionally.

Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:

Calling on the authorities to release Anairis Miranda Leyva, Adairis Miranda Leyva, and Fidel Manuel Batista Leyva immediately and unconditionally from imprisonment and Maydolis Leyva Portelles from house arrest, as they are prisoners of conscience, imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression;

Calling on them to refrain from using measures to punish hunger strikers or to coerce them to end a hunger strike, which would be a violation of their right to freedom of expression.

Urging them to provide the siblings with access to qualified health professionals providing health care in compliance with medical ethics, including the principles of confidentiality, autonomy, and informed consent.

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

According to its webpage, El Movimiento Cubano de Reflexión is a non-violent organization which aims to mobilize Cuban citizens to bring about social change.

The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a Cuban-based human rights NGO not recognized by the state, documented a monthly average of 827 politically motivated detentions in 2016.

Provisions of the Cuban Criminal Code, such as contempt of a public official (desacato), resistance to public officials carrying out their duties (resistencia) and public disorder (desórdenes públicos) are frequently used to stifle free speech, assembly and association in Cuba.

Article 204 of the Cuba Penal Code criminalizes “defamation of institutions, organizations and heroes and martyrs of the Republic of Cuba.” (Difamación de las instituciones y organizaciones y de los héroes y mártires). Under the law, anyone who publically defames, denigrates or disparages institutions of the Cuban Republic, or political organizations, or heroes or martyrs of the homeland, risks sanctions of deprivation of liberty of three months to a year or a fine.

Under international law, the use of defamation laws with the purpose or effect of inhibiting legitimate criticism of the government or public officials violates the right to freedom of expression.

Nor is the continuing downward spiral into greater misery for Venezuelans a surprise because it is the natural outcome of "21st Century Socialism" which bears a striking resemblance to 20th Century Communism.

Hopefully this approach will change with the new administration in the White House and there is reason for hope as democracies in the Americas have finally spoken up to express their alarm with the course of action take by the Maduro regime. Let us pray that this will not be another case of too little, too late.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but
there must never be a time when we fail to protest." - Elie Wiesel, Nobel Lecture 1986

Joachim
Løvschall: December 7, 1970 - March 29, 1997

Joachim
Løvschall was studying Spanish in Havana in the spring of 1997. He was
gunned down by a soldier of the Castro regime in Havana, Cuba twenty
years ago today on March 29, 1997. The identity of the soldier has never
been revealed to Joachim''s family. No one has been brought to justice.
Joachim's family is not satisfied with the official explanation.

The last time they saw Joachim On March 28, 1997 Joachim Løvschall ate his last dinner with white wine
in a
little restaurant called Aladin, located on 21st street in Havana. He
went
to the Revolutionary Plaza and bought a ticket to the Cuban National
Theater. Following the performance he went to the theater's bar, Cafe Cantate, and
met
up with two Swedish friends. They each drank a couple of beers, but soon left
because
Joachim did not like the music. At 23:30, they said good bye to each other on the sidewalk in front of
Cafe
Cantate.

Joachim was never seen alive again. The Castro regime's version of what happenedOn September 28, 1997 the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published an article byKim Hundevadt titled "Dangerous Vacation" that outlined what happened to Joachim Løvschall and presented the Castro dictatorship's version of the events leading to this young man's death:

Around 23:30, a person matching Joachim
Løvschall's description was in a bar named Segundo Dragon d'Oro.
The bar
lies
in the hopeless part of town, around the Revolutionary Plaza which is
dominated
by ministry and other official buildings of harsh concrete architecture,
and
lies empty in at night.
At 2:45am he left the bar, after becoming intoxicated. Around 20 minutes
later, he was walking down the Avenue Territorial, behind the Defense
Ministry.Joachim Løvschall walked, according to the Cuban authorities,
first on
the
sidewalk that lies opposite the Ministry. Midway he crossed over to the
other
sidewalk, considered to be a military area, though it is not blocked
off.
The Cubans have explained that Joachim Løvschall was shouted at
by two
armed
guards, who in addition fired warning shots, which he did not react to.
Therefore, one guard shot from the hip with an AK-47 rifle. The first
shot hit
Joachim in the stomach and got him to crumble down. The second shot hit slanting down the left side of the neck.

Joachim
Løvschall gunned down in Cuba in 1997

Ten years agoOn June 12, 2007 Christian Løvschall, Joachim's father, at a parallel forum at the United Nations Human Rights Council spoke about his son's disappearance and the struggle to find out if Joachim was dead or alive:

"Although the killing took place on the
29th of March, we only came to know about it on the 6th of April - i.e.
after 8 days were we had the feeling that the Cuban authorities were
unwilling to inform anything about the incident. Only because of good
relations with Spanish speaking friends in other Latin American
countries did we succeed in getting into contact with the family with
whom Joachim stayed and the repeated message from their side was that
they could reveal nothing, but that the situation had turned out very
bad and that we had to come to Cuba as soon as possible. At the same
time all contacts to the responsible authorities turned out negatively... Only after continued
pressure from our side on the Cuban embassy in Copenhagen, things
suddenly changed and the sad information was given to us by our local
police on the evening of the 6th of April. We are, however, 100% convinced that had we not made use of our own
contact and had we not continued our pressure on the embassy in
Copenhagen, we might have faced a situation where Joachim would have
been declared a missing person, a way out the Cuban authorities have
been accused of applying in similar cases."

Ten years laterChristian Løvschall outlined what he knew concerning his son's untimely death:

We do feel we were (and still are) left with no answers except to maybe one of the following questions: Where, When, Who, Why Starting out with the where we were told that Joachim was killed by the soldiers outside the Ministry of Interior.

Where

What we do not
understand is why no fence or signs did inform that this is a restricted
area? I have been on the spot myself, and the place appears exactly
like a normal residential area. So you may question whether this in fact
was the place of the killing? Contrary to this the authorities keep
maintaining that the area was properly sealed off, and the relevant sign
posts were in place.

When

As to when Joachim
was killed we only have the information received from the police because
of the delay informing one might believe that this is another forgery
made up to cover the truth.

Who

The
who was in our opinion has never been answered by the Cuban
authorities. We understand that a private soldier on duty was made
responsible for the killing, and also it has been rumored that his
officer in charge has been kept responsible. This is of course the easy
way out, but why can't we get to know the whole and true story? Why

Why did the soldiers
have to fire two shots, one to his body and one to his head, to murder
him? Was Joachim violent and did he, an unarmed individual, attack the
armed soldiers? Or is it simply that the instruction to Cuban soldiers
are: first you shoot and then you ask? But again: Who can explain why
two shots were needed?

Cuban authorities sentenced human rights defender Eduardo Cardet to three years in prison after holding him in provisional prison in Holguín, south-east Cuba, since November 2016. He is a prisoner of conscience who must be released immediately and unconditionally.

Dr. Eduardo Cardet Concepción, leader of the Christian Liberation Movement (Movimiento Cristiano Liberación, MCL) since 2014 was sentenced to three years in prison on 20 March. He was arrested in Holguín on 30 November 2016, five days after the death of the former leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro. He has since been held in the provisional prison (prisión provisional) of Holguín and will remain there while he carries out the appeals.

Eduardo Cardet was charged with attacking an official of the state (atentado) after he publicly criticized Fidel Castro a few days after his death. Prior to his arrest, Eduardo Cardet had given interviews published in international media in which he had been critical of the Cuban government. In an interview with Madrid-based radio station esRadio, aired two days before his arrest, he described the mourning in Cuba following the death of Fidel Castro as imposed, and said: “Castro was a very controversial man, very much hated and rejected by our people”. His lawyer has until 31 March to file an appeal.

Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:

Calling on the authorities to release Dr. Eduardo Cardet immediately and unconditionally, as he is a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression;

Calling on them to guarantee the peaceful right to freedom of expression, assembly and association including for dissident, opponent or activist voices and to repeal all legislation which unduly limits these rights;

Urging them to ensure that, pending his release, he is provided with any medical care he may require; that he is not tortured or otherwise ill-treated; and that he is granted regular access to family and lawyers of his choosing.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Christian Democrat Organization of America (ODCA) in Spanish represents 34 political parties that span the Americas. ODCA issued the following statement today demanding the release of its Vie-President in Cuba Eduardo Cardet.

ODCA DEMANDS RELEASE OF ODCA VICE PRESIDENT IN CUBA EDUARDO CARDETThe
leader of the Christian Movement for Liberation (MCL) and ODCA
Vice-President, Eduardo Cardet, was recently convicted by the Cuban
authorities of three years in prison accused of "assault on authority." The opposition leader had been beaten and detained, during Fidel Castro's funeral proceedings, on November 30 in Holguín province.Before this new determination against the Cuban dissidence, the Christian Democratic Organization of America states:

We demand the immediate release of Dr. Eduardo Cardet, leader of
the Christian Liberation Movement and Vice-President of ODCA, who has
been leading a social and political movement that nonviolently struggles for
democracy and more freedoms for Cuba.

We understand that this new impulse to repress political
dissidence is a mechanism to intimidate the Christian Liberation
Movement (MCL) and block the initiative "One Cuban, One Vote" that they
presented to the National Assembly of People's Power in Havana.

ODCA
reiterates its historic position in favor of respect for the human
rights and public liberties of Cuban opponents seeking to peacefully
promote a process of democratization in Cuba, a struggle historically
promoted by Christian Democratic leaders such as Oswaldo Payá, who died
in 2012 under circumstances not clarified, and led today by Eduardo Cardet.

ODCA
denounces the practices of the Cuban
State that violate human rights to repress and frighten political dissidents and humanitarian
organizations, including beatings, threats, surveillance,
harassment, arbitrary detentions, summary trials that do not comply with the principles of due process, and imprisonment.

Three
months ago, the international community celebrated the 68th anniversary
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the favorable vote of
Cuba and 47 other member states. In that context, we reiterate the call for Cuban authorities to
respect human rights, civil and political liberties and the physical
integrity of dissident political leaders, as mandated by that
international commitment.

ODCA
joins Amnesty International's demand for freedom, which has declared
our Vice President Eduardo Cardet "a prisoner of conscience" for being
imprisoned "solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of
expression." At the same time, ODCA issues a call for subscribing of the MCL Campaign "Freedom and Life for Eduardo Cardet".

Finally,
ODCA reaffirms that the right of all Cubans to decide freely and
sovereignly the future of their country is the only way to move towards a
tolerant, plural, free and democratic Cuba.

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Paradisus Rio de Oro in Holguin: what travel agencies show (left) what tourists see (right)

Lonely Planet pitches Cuba as "old school cool" and an "escape from the hustle and bustle" but at the bottom of the web page has one line of caution: "The US Center for Disease Control has issued a travel alert suggesting that pregnant women postpone travel to Cuba due to the presence of the zika virus." The Castro regime has a poor history of timely reporting of epidemics on the island, placing tourists at risk. Canada's Sunwing travel agency pitches Cuba as "Paradise…with a history." However it fails to mention that the resort they were sending tourists to in Cuba had "water problems" which meant little or no water for at least 12 days according to a March 22, 2017 Global News article. In a follow up article on March 24th Global news reported on the Starfish Cayo Santa Maria resort in Cuba:

Travellers
told Global News they had little or no fresh water for their entire
trip to the resort, making it impossible to flush toilets, take showers
or wash their hands.
Some, like Donna Carvalho of Georgetown,
Ont., returned to Canada and went almost immediately to hospital with
severe diarrhea, vomiting and an excruciating headache. Carvalho was
placed in isolation for five hours and released after she said doctors
concluded she had likely become ill from unsanitary conditions at the
resort.
Carvalho said she witnessed the hotel restaurant using a
“dirty rag” to clean dishes, cutlery and glassware in lieu of a
dishwasher. Other travellers described similar nauseating experiences.

The Canadian government has said that the ill served tourists, many of whom returned home very sick can sue the travel agency. It is not only Sunwing that needs to worry about a lawsuit but also the British based Thomas Cook travel agency. James and Kathryn Longhurst booked their dream honeymoon to Cuba for a two-week all-inclusive getaway in Paradisus Rio de Oro in Holguin, Guardalavaca that cost the newlywed couple $6,235. Three days in, Mr Longhurst fell so ill his tongue turned black. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was given injections and put on IV drips. Returned home and continued to feel ill. They are now suing Thomas Cook. Mrs. Longhurst also became ill. The newlyweds cited "filthy conditions" as the cause of the illness observing in a March 23rd article in The Sun that "dining restaurants were poorly kept with food not “covered properly”,
“insects and birds” flying around the buffet area, staff not wearing
gloves while handling food and the same utensils used for different
dishes."

It is true that tourism provides hard currency to the Cuban military, that runs the tourism industry on the island shoring up the dictatorship, but not expected was that it would also generate food shortages among everyday Cubans as The New York Times reported on December 8, 2016.

Foreign tourists misled by travel agencies can seek justice and exercise their rights back home, but not in Cuba. Meanwhile Cubans have less access to food while the military and the Castro regime get richer off of foreign tourists prolonging the life of the dictatorship.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Husband, father of two, and physician sentenced to three years in prison for expressing himself

Eduardo Cardet Concepción, Cuban prisoner of conscience

Amnesty International, 21 March 2017

A three year sentence against the leader of a Christian
pro-democracy movement after he criticized Fidel Castro is a stark
illustration of ongoing restrictions to the right to free expression in
Cuba, said Amnesty International.

He was charged with attacking an official of the state (atentado)
after he publicly criticized former Cuban leader Fidel Castro a few
days after his death. During an interview with Madrid-based radio
station esRadio, aired two days before his arrest, Cardet
described the mourning in Cuba following the death of Fidel Castro as
imposed, and said: “Castro was a very controversial man, very much hated
and rejected by our people.” His lawyer has ten days to file an
appeal.

“For decades, the Cuban authorities have harassed and
intimidated members of the Christian Liberation Movement in a attempt to
silence any dissenting ideas,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas
Director at Amnesty International.

“Despite some recent openness, we see how the Cuban authorities
continue to control free expression. It is beyond belief that people are
still routinely arrested for criticizing a politician or for writing an
opinion on a wall – as was the case of graffiti artist Danilo ‘El
Sexto’ Maldonado. Sadly, Cuban courts continue to fail to provide a
rigorous check and balance to executive powers.”

“There is no doubt that Dr Cardet is a prisoner of conscience, put
behind bars for speaking his mind. He must not be made to spend a second
longer in jail.”

Provisions of the Cuban Criminal Code, such as contempt of a public
official (desacato), resistance to public officials carrying out their
duties (resistencia) and public disorder (desórdenes públicos) are
frequently used to stifle free speech, assembly and association in Cuba.

The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a
Cuban-based human rights NGO not recognized by the state, documented a
monthly average of 827 politically motivated detentions in 2016.

The Christian Liberation Movement (Movimento Cristiano Liberación,
MCL) is a prominent actor in the pro-democracy movement in Cuba.
According to its website, it is a movement for peaceful and democratic
change and respect for human dignity. It was founded in 1988 by Oswaldo
Payá Sardiñas, who became a visible figure of the Cuban political
opposition, and four other activists.

Amnesty International has documented harassment and intimidation of
members of the MCL for decades. In 1991, after Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas
presented a petition calling for a national referendum relating to
constitutional reform, he had his home destroyed by over 200 people,
said to be members of a Rapid Response Brigade. After Oswaldo Payá
announced his intention to put himself forward as a candidate for deputy
to the National Assembly for the municipality of Cerro, Havana, members
of his organization were reportedly subjected to frequent questioning
and short-term detention.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

"I am obliged to once again denounce the dictatorial regime of the Castros, this time as a mother and human rights defender." - Sirley Avila Leon, March 20, 2017

Sirley Avila Leon denounces death threats against her son and mom

Las Tunas, Cuba:
Yoerlis Peña Ávila on March 15, 2017 received a death threat against
him and his grandmother, Sirley Leon Aguilera, for being family (son and
mother respectively) of Sirley Avila Leon, who was the victim of a May
24, 2015 machete attack carried out by a regime collaborator that left
her permanently disabled. The threat is in response to her legal demand
presented to recover 126,000 Cuban pesos ($4754) in damages resulting
from the attack.

On March 15, 2017 he was able to send an e-mail
to his mother that described what had happened that same day: "I was
working and a man that I do not know told me that it was better that the
legal demand not be continued because you did not know the risk in
which you were exposing me and my grandmother that for you to suffer
they could attack us."

Four days earlier on March 11, 2017
Sirley Avila Leon had contacted her son, and again on March 13th on both
occasions they discussed the legal action being pursued, but then found
it increasingly difficult to communicate. It appears that the Castro
regime does not want this legal action to be pursued and is using
intimidation to try to shut it down.

There is good reason to be
concerned with this pattern of threats and harassment. Over a three year
period (2012 - 2015) regime agents made a series of threats and took
actions that culminated in the attempted murder of Sirley Avila Leon on
May 24, 2015. Another round of threats and harassment when she returned
to Cuba on September 7, 2016 following medical treatment in Miami led
to her decision to leave Cuba on October 28, 2016 and request asylum in
the United States when death threats against her person escalated and
her attacker, Osmany Carriòn, was free and bragging that he would finish
the job he started.

Sirley Avila Leon is asking democratic
representatives, human rights organizations, and members of
international organizations and all people of goodwill to urge the Cuban
government to investigate the threat made against her son and mother.

Background information
Sirley
Ávila León was a delegate to the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power
in Cuba from June 2005, for the rural area of Limones until 2012 when
the regime gerrymandered her district out of existence. The Castro
regime removed her from her position because she had fought to reopen a
school in her district, but been ignored by official channels and had
reached out to international media. Her son, Yoerlis Peña Ávila, who had
an 18 year distinguished career in the Cuban military was forced out
when he refused to declare his mother insane and have her committed to a
psychiatric facility.

Sirley joined the ranks of the democratic
opposition and repression against her increased dramatically. On May 24,
2015 she was the victim of a brutal machete attack carried out by
Osmany Carriòn, with the complicit assistance of his wife, that led to
the loss of her left hand, right upper arm nearly severed, and knees
slashed into leaving her crippled. Following the attack she did not
receive adequate medical care and was told quietly by medical doctors in
Cuba that if she wanted to get better that she would need to leave the
country.

On March 8, 2016 she arrived in Miami and began a course
of treatments over the next six months during which she was able to
walk once again although still limited due to her injuries. She returned
to Cuba on September 7, 2016 only to find her home occupied by
strangers and her attacker free and bragging that he would finish the
job. She moved in with her mother and within a short time a camera and
microphone were set up across from her mother's home on a post.

Threats
against Sirley's life intensified leading her to flee Cuba to the
United States and request political asylum on October 28, 2016. Below is a video in Spanish explaining the circumstances that led her to leave Cuba.

Monday, March 20, 2017

"So long as the Castro government jails Eduardo Cardet, a prisoner of conscience, we call for the complete removal of Cuba from this Council." - Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, addressing the UN Human Rights Council, March 20, 2017

Sentenced today to three years in prison

Eduardo Cardet Concepción, prisoner of conscience and Christian Liberation Movement national coordinator, was sentenced to three years in prison today. Meanwhile at the United Nations Human Rights Council his plight was referenced in an oral statement by Hillel Neuer of the nongovernmental organization UN Watch. Speaking out for the Cuban dissident drew an angry protest from the Castro regime's diplomats that interrupted the courageous speaker.

Today Eduardo Cardet was informed of the sentence to three years in prison that was dictated by the court that tried him on March 3, 2017 in Gibara, Holguin. Eduardo Cardet told his wife, the sentence is based on manipulated data, without taking into account the testimony of defense witnesses. Cardet's family will appeal the ruling

Dictatorships at UNHRC try to silence UN Watch's Hillel Neuer

Today we ask: Is the world living up to the Vienna Declaration, which reaffirms basic human rights?
We ask the government of Turkish President Erdogan,
if it cares about human rights, why did they just fire more than one
hundred thousand teachers, university deans, judges, prosecutors,
religious figures and public servants?

We ask Pakistan, when will they release Asia Bibi, the innocent, Christian mother of five, now on death row on the absurd charge of blasphemy?

We ask Saudi Arabia, when will you end gender
apartheid? When will you stop oppressing all religious practice that is
not Wahhabist Islam? When will you release Raif Badawi, serving 10 years
in prison for the crime of advocating a free society?

We welcome the Secretary-General’s new pledge of UN reform. That is
why today, pursuant to Article 8 of Resolution 60/251, we call for the
complete removal of Saudi Arabia from this Council.

So long as 1.3 billion people are denied their basic freedoms, we call for the removal of China.
So long as human rights are abused by Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burundi,
Congo, Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, and UAE, we call for their removal.

So long as the Maduro government imprisons democracy leaders like
Mayor Antonio Ledezma of Caracas, and causes its millions of citizens to
scavenge for food, we call for the removal of Venezuela.

So long as the Castro government jails Eduardo Cardet, a prisoner of conscience, we call for the complete removal of Cuba from this Council.
Mr. President, we have the right to cite the suspension provision of
this council’s own charter. They can silence human rights defenders at
home, but they cannot do so at the United Nations.

Saturday, March 18, 2017

"They are in prison only for defending human rights, which in any country are recognized as fundamental..." - Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, March 16, 2007

Catholic nun lays flowers before photos of the prisoners of conscience of the Black Spring

It began 14 years ago today, the massive roundup of dissidents by the Castro regime's secret police. Their crimes? Some had organized a petition drive, legally recognized within the existing constitution; others were independent journalists or human rights activists. Over a 100 were rounded up but 75 would be subjected to political show trials and sentenced to lengthy prison terms ranging up to 28 years in prison. Amnesty International recognized them all as prisoners of conscience. The Cuban dictatorship thought it had crushed the Cuban democratic opposition, but they were wrong.

In the midst of the crackdown emerged a new and formidable force: The Ladies in White. The mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters of the 74 men imprisoned organized into this movement that began to march through the streets of Cuba following mass on Sundays, organizing literary teas, and strategizing how to nonviolently free their loved ones. One woman was condemned to prison in the 2003 Black Spring and she was sentenced to 20 years.

Despite the slanders, death threats, beatings, and broken bones by 2011 all of the 75 political prisoners, who became known as the "group of the 75" where out of prison. Most were sent into exile but 12 who held out to the end remain in the island and today continue the struggle and the others now outside, who still live, press on for a democratic transition in Cuba.

Looking back fourteen years ago there is a documentaryThe Black SpringLa Primavera Negra filmed in Cuba before and after the crackdown that captures that moment in time. Filmed by Czech - Chilean journalist Carlos Gonzalez.

List of prisoners of the Black Cuban Spring
Name of the prisoner of conscience, age at the time of his arrest, and prison sentence (Source: Amnesty, 2003)

Amnesty International in their 2003 report "Essential Measures" also expressed concern over the following additional arrests:A number of additional dissidents were reportedly arrested
during or around the time of the crackdown. The organisation
is currently gathering information on their activities, the
circumstances of their arrest and their current legal status,
in order to determine if they too should be considered prisoners
of conscience. They include Rafael Ernesto Avila Pérez,
Javier García Pérez, Félix Jaime González Martínez, Rolando
Jimenes Posada, Rafael Millet Leyva, Miguel Sigler Amaya,
Pablo Solis Cubilla and Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

Fourteen years later and the founder of the Ladies in White died under suspicious circumstances in 2011 and Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, who many asked at the time why he was not jailed in 2003, was killed in what appears to have been a state security engineered "accident." In two days the individual who was elected to head the Christian Liberation Movement, Eduardo Cardet, who has been jailed since November 30, 2016 is expected to have his three year prison sentence confirmed by the Castro regime.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Why the Cuban government in 2017 is still a totalitarian dictatorship.

First showing of POLITICAL PRISONERS IN CUBA Avatars of the Family

This morning Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina founding member of the Eastern Democratic Alliance and founder of the audio visual project Palenque Visión unveiled the documentary POLITICAL PRISONERS IN CUBA Avatars of the Family PRISIONEROS POLITICOS EN CUBA Avatares de la Familia at the Bacardi House at the University of Miami co-hosted by the Center for a Free Cuba and the Institute for Cuban Cuban American Studies. There was a brief introduction, followed by a showing of the 29 minute 16 second documentary and a discussion after the documentary between Rolando and the audience.

The importance of this documentary is that it reveals the Castro regime's apparatus of repression targeting friends, family and neighbors of dissidents with the aim of isolating all that dissent from the official line with escalating consequences that can end in prison or death. These consequences are not restricted to the individual dissident but target his or her entire social network. This documentaryis an important work that exposes the existing totalitarian nature of the Castro regime in 2017.

Rolando has been detained by Cuban State Security over a 100 times over the past 31 years as an opposition activist and also spent a total of six years and two months in prison on three separate occasions. At the same time the documentary filmmaker explained how state security had opened a case file against his nine year old son and was already targeting him at school. Harassment and exclusion are a starting point in a sinister strategy that seeks to destroy socially, and some times physically, those who disagree with you.

The full documentary is now available online to all. Hopefully an English subtitled version will be available to reach a greater audience.

Monday, March 13, 2017

"If you fight with violence, you are fighting with your enemy’s best weapon and you may be a brave but dead hero."- Gene Sharp

Student leader José Antonio Echeverría (center)

Sixty years ago today in the afternoon, a group of young men took up arms
and charged into the presidential palace in Havana to assassinate the
Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista, and were all gunned down. Nearby at
the same time in Radio Reloj not knowing that the assault had failed
student leader José Antonio Echeverría declared the dictator dead only to be himself killed in a skirmish after leaving the radio station. It was described as the day that Cuba lost its future.

Six decades later both sides in the ongoing struggle
declare José Antonio Echeverría as one of their own. However, his
democratic credentials and history as an elected student leader and practicing catholic would place him at odds with the Castro dictatorship.

Jose Antonio's sister Lucy Echeverría on August 27,
2014 spoke at a panel discussion, "The Urban Insurrection Against Batista: The Life and Times of Jose
Antonio Echeverria" at Florida International University about her brother's leadership at the University of Havana: "My brother held the presidencyoftheFederation of University Students (FEU)four times elected byoverwhelmingly majorities. There the troubles began withCastro.As he neverbecame president, he always keptthatinside."

Not mentioned in the Castro regime's official press is how the Echeverria family rejected the Castro regime's totalitarian turn to dictatorship
and ended up in exile by 1961. According to Lucy,
objects found in the Birthplace Museum of José Antonio Echeverría in
Cárdenas do not belong to her brother. She also explained how a televised tribute by the dictatorship in
Cuba, had imposters play the supposed parents of the martyred leader,
while the real ones were already exiled in the United States.

Nevertheless, the legacy of the "13 de Marzo" action to overthrow
Fulgencio Batista by violent means ended with the deaths of many good
and brave Cuban democrats, José Antonio among them, opening the way for
Fidel Castro and in hindsight can be seen to have been a disastrous
idea.

The exercise of violence always has a destructive effect on human
relationships even when, as sometimes happens, it accomplishes some
short-term goal. The exercise of nonviolence, or Satyagraha, always
brings people closer. This explains why Gandhi, after fifty years of
experimentation in every walk of life, could declare that he “knew of no
single case in which it had failed.” Where it seemed to fail he
concluded that he or the other satyagrahis had in some way failed to
live up to its steep challenge.Taking the long view, he was
able to declare that “There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence.
The end of violence is surest defeat.”

Unfortunately, the "13 de Marzo" also has another and related
significance in Cuban history. Twenty three years ago this upcoming July 13,
1994 a tugboat named the "13 de Marzo", in honor of that violent
anniversary, carrying Cuban families seeking to flee the Castro
dictatorship, that replaced Fulgencio Batista in 1959, was attacked by
agents of the current dictatorship and 37 were killed among them 10 children.